CAIRO (Reuters) -- Old habits die hard for Mahmoud Abbas. The president almost hailed deposed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak during an Islamic summit in Cairo on Wednesday, and thanked a deceased Arab king for remarks delivered later in the meeting.

Abbas pulled himself up in mid-sentence as he began to utter Mubarak's name during a televised address to the summit chaired by President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist jailed in the Mubarak era who was elected head of state last year.

"It pleases me, at the beginning, to offer greetings to Mr President Mohamed Hos ... Mohamed Mursi, the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt," Abbas said, stopping himself before committing a diplomatic blunder.